f7

MAY 27.
I find I have fallen into raptures, declamation, and similes, and have forgotten, in consequence, to tell you what became of the children. Absorbed in my artistic contemplations, which I briefly described in my let- ter of yesterday, I continued sitting on the plough for two hours. 
五月二十七日
我看我是太兴奋了，打了那么多比方，说了那么多题外的话，竟忘了把那两个孩子后来的情况讲完。我在昨天的信里就零零碎碎地跟你说过，我完全沉浸在画家的感受之中了，我在那张犁上大概坐了有两个小时。
Toward evening a young woman, with a basket on her arm, came running to- ward the children, who had not moved all that time. She exclaimed from a distance, "You are a good boy, Philip!" She gave me greeting: I returned it, rose, and approached her. I inquired if she were the mother of those pretty children. "Yes," she said; and, giving the eldest a piece of bread, she took the little one in her arms and kissed it with a mother's tender- ness. "I left my child in Philip's care," she said, "whilst I went into the town with my eldest boy to buy some wheaten bread, some sugar, and an earthen pot." I saw the various articles in the basket, from which the cover had fallen.
傍晚时分，一个年轻的女人，挎着一个篮子，朝着那两个孩子走来，老远就喊道：“菲利普斯，你真乖。”她向我问好，我谢过她，就站起身来走过去，问她是不是孩子的母亲。她说是。她随手把一块小的白面包给了那大一点儿的孩子，就抱起那个小的，怀着满腔的母爱吻了吻他。
“我把小家伙，”她说，“交给了我的菲利普斯照管，带着大孩子进城买白面包、糖和煮粥的小砂锅去了。”
我在那个敞着的小篮子里看到了她所说的一切东西。
 "I shall make some broth to-night for my little Hans (which was the name of the youngest): that wild fellow, the big one, broke my pot yesterday, whilst he was scrambling with Philip for what remained of the contents." I inquired for the eldest; and she bad scarcely time to tell me that he was driving a couple of geese home from the meadow, when he ran up, and handed Philip an osier-twig. I talked a little longer with the woman, and found that she was the daughter of the schoolmaster, and that her husband was gone on a journey into Switzer- land for some money a relation had left him. "They wanted to cheat him," she said, "and would not answer his letters; so he is gone there himself. I hope he has met with no accident, as I have heard nothing of him since his departure."
“我想给我的汉斯（这是那个最小的孩子的名字）煮点儿粥当晚饭；那个老大，是一个淘气包，昨天跟菲利普斯争抢那点儿粥，把砂锅打破了。”
我问起老大，她说那孩子正在草地上赶鹅回家。话音未落，他就一蹦一跳地来到眼前了，而且还给老二带来了一根榛树枝。我跟这位妇人谈下去，得知她是一位教师的女儿，她的丈夫到瑞士要堂兄留下的遗产去了。“他们想把他的这份遗产骗去，”她说，“根本不回复他的信；他现在只好亲自到瑞士去了。至今没有他的音信，但愿他别遭到什么不测。”
I left the woman, with regret, giving each of the children a kreutzer, with an additional one for the youngest, to buy some wheaten bread for his broth when she went to town next; and so we par- ted.
 I assure you, my dear friend, when my thoughts are all in tumult, the sight of such a creature as this tranquillises my disturbed mind. She moves in a happy thoughtlessness within the confined circle of her exist- ence; she supplies her wants from day to day; and, when she sees the leaves fall, they raise no other idea in her mind than that winter is approaching. 
离开这女人时，我心里很难过，便给每个孩子一枚克罗采，对于最小的孩子，我额外多给了他一枚。等她妈妈下次进城时好买个面包给他就粥吃，随后我们便彼此道别。
我亲爱的朋友，你听我说，每当我心绪不宁时，一见到这样的人，我内心的骚动就平息下来。因为这样的人只在自己生活的小圈子里安享自己平平淡淡的幸福，日复一日地靠自己的力量克服困难，见到树叶落了，什么也不去想，只想冬天就要到了。
Since that time I have gone out there frequently. The children have become quite familiar with me; and each gets a lump of sugar when I drink my coffee, and they share my milk and bread and butter in the evening. They always receive their kreutzer on Sundays, for the good woman has orders to give it to them when I do not go there after evening service. 
从那时起，我经常待在外面。孩子们跟我混熟了，我喝咖啡时，就给他们糖吃，晚餐时他们还跟我一起吃奶油面包，喝酸奶。星期天，他们总会得到我给的克罗采，要是我做完祷告不回去，便委托女店主代为分发。
They are quite at home with me, tell me everything; and I am particularly amused with observing their tempers, and the simplicity of their behaviour, when some of the other village children are assembled with them.
It has given me a deal of trouble to satisfy the anxiety of the mother, lest (as she says) "they should inconvenience the gentleman."
孩子们跟我分外亲密，对我无话不说。当村里更多的孩子聚拢来，我看见他们所表现出来的热情、听到他们发自内心的愿望，内心真有说不出的高兴。
那些做母亲的都怕孩子们给我添麻烦，为了消除她们的忧虑，我真费了不少劲儿呢。